I'm working up my character. I'm toying with some new flavors along the way, and wanted to run this by you.

I'm planning playing a Druid//Planar Shepherd (FoE, 105), but wanted to reflavor that to be less straight up "nature" oriented and more world-wanderer.

I whipped up this little combination class to accomplish the reflavoring...it's on the attached PDF.

EDIT: Also, would like a ruling on wild shaping -- will we use the MM V rules that allow access to innate spellcasting (if any) possessed by forms taken?

Ah the plannar shepard I like that class, however I dont like the homebrew class because it has a few abilities that are over the top. For example the ability to move unhindered and undamaged by any means, and the ability to wildshape into outsiders and elementals, gaining all thier powers early on in the class. So no to the homebrew class.

As a plannar shepard you will eventually gain the ability to wildshape into magical beasts, at 9th level of the class you can become outsiders like devas and use all of thier abilities. So in itself the class is already overpowered. Its totally worth the wait.

I cant find the ruling on innate spellcasting your talking about, can you write it out for me?

Ambitious project, Shakram. Making really tempting to see if I have room for this.

__________________
"The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon."
-G.K. Chesterton, Tremendous Trifles (1909), XVII: "The Red Angel"

OOOOOOOO I am very interested. We are not doing Gesalt, just standard one class right? With 50 point buy, it will be pretty op to start.

I am definitely going to make a necromancer type, that is by far my favorite archetype, and alignment is irreverent. I do play evil characters where they can work with other players, and I never use CE characters outside of Drow, and they play like LE or NE not CE because Lolth makes them.

SO, build will be caster type, necromancy specialty. This will be my placeholder post and I will have a character built soon with a background and such.

Valjek is a terrifying spawn of Hell, a soul that has turned his back on redemption when given a chance and paid the price. He has a bright red skin and strong, fair facial features like a devil over half his face, and the other half is skinless and skeletal, he wears a mask covering that half of his face, with a continuation of his fair features drawn in blood on the mask to make a complete face. Those are tempered however by black spikes coming out of his shoulders and back like misshapen tumors with out of control growth. In addition, he has infernal tattoos over 90% of his body, marking his soul as the property of Asmodeus for all to see.

Valjek wears a robe of the darkest black with runes of blood red constantly moving about them. He carries Blackskull, a magical unholy mace made from a skull of a fallen enemy and coated in soot blackened steel with two large black iron spikes sticking out of the eye sockets. He carries a staff of fire on his back and a black headband holding his mask onto his head. He never goes anywhere without one of his prize minions, usually one of his two mounts, a chimera or fallen gold dragon.

Personality

Valjek is ruthless, cunning, fearless, vicious, and hate filled. He wants to rule and demands attention wherever he goes. But most importantly, he wants to change his fate, and is willing to do anything to accomplish that. To that end he can even be kind and charming if the occasion calls for it, but deep down he is a damned soul and knows it, which is why he is willing to make any sacrifice to escape his damnation. For the very few friends he has, he does greatly value them, and will stand by them until a tactical retreat is required. Nothing is worth accepting the fate waiting for him after death...

Valjek has a thirst for necromancy and sees it as his golden goose, a way to escape the gods and the devils and live eternally with a phylactery to bring him back over and over again. He has no moral compass and feels no remorse or compassion for the poor souls that end up under his operating knives as test subjects, or are thrown into the ghoul feeding pens. He has a particular dislike for Dwarves after they sabotaged the building of his fortress, and goes out of his way to butcher them and feed them to his pets.

Background

Valjek was born to a poor Elven family in the slums of Waterdeep. He was an only child and had to beg for food in order to survive. His parents were cruel and abusive, beating him if he didn't bring back enough money from his begging. He begged the gods of light and dark for help. He begged and begged until he thought he would not survive another night. That night, when he thought his father was going to beat him to death, a knock on the door halted the beating. His father was drunk and furious at the interruption, but went to check on the door as Valjek lay bloody and broken on the floor. The man at the door looked as an angel, dressed in perfect white of a businessman. Valjek could not really see what was going on, but after a moment of the man talking to his father, his father fell to the floor before him, eyes burned out and flesh blackened. The man in white then walked over to Valjek and bent down, whispering into his ear; 'I hear your prayers boy, and I have come to aid you when no other would, but my help carries a price. One that you have already promised to pay.... Live and be strong, and remember your debts... ' With that the man in white pointed at Valjek and an infernal glyph seared itself into the flesh of his chest, the first of many bargain markers he would make before he died...

Over the course of the next ten years, Valjek traded more and more of his soul for power to the devils of hell until he had nothing left to trade. His currency ran out, the well was dry, and he was left with impossible debts to fulfill. He dabbled in magic, but mostly led a life of luxury, fine dining, and abundant women to sate his lust, including one succubus, his prized concubine. When the call came to repay his debts, he was left with not a single means to do so. The piper came in the form of his succubus, with poisoned claws to drag him down to hell for not paying his due. In his desperation as he was dying, he cried out once more to the gods of light, for a chance at redemption, a chance for forgiveness. This time, St. Cuthbert listened. Listened but did not believe, so he forged him a body from the slain devils that he owed his soul to. A tortured body who's very existence was an anathema, but one that St. Cuthbert hoped would become a beacon for good in the world, as he saw the boy's potential for it. It was however, not to be.

When Valjek awoke in the world of the living, his relief was short lived. He soon saw what he had become and despaired, his old life was gone, never to be again and he was left with half a face, as half a person. He threw his curses at the gods that had saved him, and vowed to find a way to change his fate and get his revenge on Asmodeus. Now damned by Asmodeus and St. Cuthbert, he turned to Vecna and his church to learn the way of death and immortality. He used his ties to Asmodeus to his advantage, channeling divine energy through him and learning necromancy from the followers of Vecna. He stayed there for years until he had learned everything he needed from them, and then practiced his crowning achievement of turning his lover, Anaqui, into a vampire. After that, they killed all of the followers of Vecna in the temple while they were sleeping, animated them, then burned the temple down as they left to make sure that all traces of him being there would not be found by the Devils hunting him. And so Valjek earned his title as the thrice damned Hellbred.

With his knowledge in hand, and the magic items that they looted from the temple of Vecna, along with some possible locations of the hand and eye, Valjek and Anaqui sought out a suitable place for a castle

Not seeing your progression on your classes nor how you qualify for them. Also the undead under your command should be based on the limits of the classes you have.

To be honest there are alot of abilities players can have for classes and I do not want to go pouring through books so I ask that any non SRD classes, feats, and abilities players want to use to please put the information on it in a spoiler.

Will do, it is still wip, was going to finish tonight but couldn't concentrate with wife and baby. I'll have it done tomorrow.

Short answer is true necromancer requires caster lvl 2 in divine and arcane and gives caster lvls in both. So I am caster level 10 in arcane and divine casting. I will copy my undead hd directly controlled to the application as well, and the undead from undead leadership.

My intention with the roughly 150 undead under control, is having most of them at the castle I purchased and only bringing one or two on adventures with me. A mount and my cohort for example, leaving the other monstrous undead as a castle guard. That can also act as a group base of operations if needed. And I leave 30 hd worth of undead free to use while adventuring.

__________________

Some may question your right to destroy ten billion people. Those who understand realize that you have no right to let them live!

Will do, it is still wip, was going to finish tonight but couldn't concentrate with wife and baby. I'll have it done tomorrow.

Short answer is true necromancer requires caster lvl 2 in divine and arcane and gives caster lvls in both. So I am caster level 10 in arcane and divine casting. I will copy my undead hd directly controlled to the application as well, and the undead from undead leadership.

My intention with the roughly 150 undead under control, is having most of them at the castle I purchased and only bringing one or two on adventures with me. A mount and my cohort for example, leaving the other monstrous undead as a castle guard. That can also act as a group base of operations if needed. And I leave 30 hd worth of undead free to use while adventuring.

Looks like an awesome and powerful character however. . . .

A few things. . . . .
A wizard can never give up divination to fulfill the requirement for prohibited schools.
Crafting costs will dip into your XP you may want to rethink it.
No matter how many times you use animate dead, you can control only 4 HD worth of undead creatures per caster level.

Puts you at about 40hd of undead skeletons and zombies.

The SRD states that only skeletons and zombies may be created with animate dead I dont see any character abilities which allow players to use animate undead on 20hd monsters.Also as a rule of thumb I wont be allowing any permenant cohorts or followers to have more HD than the player characters.

Can I get a DM ruling that allows me to merge Planar Shepherd with my Druid levels? PlanShep is literally a druid per flavor text, and progresses everything anyway. The big thing here is that I'd like to keep A Thousand Faces and Timeless Body from Druid.

EDIT*: I'll see if I can dig up the rule. I know I have the actual text somewhere (have a DnD PDF library that is too big for my own good). In short, however, it states that outsider spellcasting abilities are Ex/Su abilities. This means that as a PlanShep, I would gain these abilities when assuming the form of outsiders native to my attuned plane.

Can I get a DM ruling that allows me to merge Planar Shepherd with my Druid levels? PlanShep is literally a druid per flavor text, and progresses everything anyway. The big thing here is that I'd like to keep A Thousand Faces and Timeless Body from Druid.

EDIT*: I'll see if I can dig up the rule. I know I have the actual text somewhere (have a DnD PDF library that is too big for my own good). In short, however, it states that outsider spellcasting abilities are Ex/Su abilities. This means that as a PlanShep, I would gain these abilities when assuming the form of outsiders native to my attuned plane.

I reccomend taking a 1 level dip after 15th level to gain Venom Immunity, A Thousand Faces, and Timeless Body

How about Druid 6 Plannar shepard 9
You get outsider wild shapes and all thier abilities plus the druid abilities you wanted.

Durid abilities

Venom Immunity (Ex)
At 9th level, a druid gains immunity to all poisons.

A Thousand Faces (Su)
At 13th level, a druid gains the ability to change her appearance at will, as if using the disguise self spell, but only while in her normal form. This affects the druid’s body but not her possessions. It is not an illusory effect, but a minor physical alteration of the druid’s appearance, within the limits described for the spell.

Timeless Body (Ex)
After attaining 15th level, a druid no longer takes ability score penalties for aging and cannot be magically aged. Any penalties she may have already incurred, however, remain in place.

OK, apologized on divination, I changed it to enchantment and swapped my one enchantment spell out.

For the animated dragon: "Regardless of the type of undead you create with this spell, you can’t create more HD of undead than twice your caster level with a single casting of animate dead. (The desecrate spell doubles this limit)" I am always under the effects of a desecrate, so I could theoretically raise a 60hd zombie and not be able to control it. lol.

If you don't want to allow a CR7 undead minion, I can pick something else, it is no worries, but it should be possible according to animate dead(I just love dragons). I have a fun backup idea for one.

For the HD breakdown(this will be added to my app):

Undead Point Pools:

Cleric: 40 hd
Sromeriok 20 hd

Cleric Command(rebuke): 12hd
10 lvl 1 humanoid warrior zombies

Wizard: 40 hd
10 4 hd fighter skeletons, The Blackguards

Wizard Command(rebuke): 12hd
10 lvl 1 humanoid warrior skeletons

Unless there has been a retcon in the rules since I sifted through 3.5, your divine and arcane animate dead hd pools are separate(and cannot be combined). So as a 10 CL arcane, I can control 40hd, then as a 10 CL divine I can control 40hd. Separately, both my wizard and cleric get the ability to command(rebuke) undead, giving them each a separate pool of controlled undead equal to the class level, which is 12 for wizard and 12 for cleric(the true necromancer counts for both) and those pools are not limited to skeletons and zombies.

I hope that makes sense?

Edit: I was incorrect on my controlled HD, it would actually be +3 CL on all of them due to necromantic prowess +3

Xp cost for items would be 3200, how bad does that effect me?

__________________

Some may question your right to destroy ten billion people. Those who understand realize that you have no right to let them live!

OK, apologized on divination, I changed it to enchantment and swapped my one enchantment spell out.

For the animated dragon: "Regardless of the type of undead you create with this spell, you can’t create more HD of undead than twice your caster level with a single casting of animate dead. (The desecrate spell doubles this limit)" I am always under the effects of a desecrate, so I could theoretically raise a 60hd zombie and not be able to control it. lol.

If you don't want to allow a CR7 undead minion, I can pick something else, it is no worries, but it should be possible according to animate dead(I just love dragons). I have a fun backup idea for one.

For the HD breakdown(this will be added to my app):

Undead Point Pools:

Cleric: 40 hd
Sromeriok 20 hd

Cleric Command(rebuke): 12hd
10 lvl 1 humanoid warrior zombies

Wizard: 40 hd
10 4 hd fighter skeletons, The Blackguards

Wizard Command(rebuke): 12hd
10 lvl 1 humanoid warrior skeletons

Unless there has been a retcon in the rules since I sifted through 3.5, your divine and arcane animate dead hd pools are separate(and cannot be combined). So as a 10 CL arcane, I can control 40hd, then as a 10 CL divine I can control 40hd. Separately, both my wizard and cleric get the ability to command(rebuke) undead, giving them each a separate pool of controlled undead equal to the class level, which is 12 for wizard and 12 for cleric(the true necromancer counts for both) and those pools are not limited to skeletons and zombies.
I hope that makes sense?

I see where your comming from however the HD max would be considered 4 times your caster level, reguardless of wizard or cleric caster level the two don't stack.
So the max would still be 40HD-44HD. Is there a rule somewhere saying they stack when it comes to your caster level and undead?

I am not saying they stack, as they don't, I am saying they are separate pools of HD.

For example, if you were a 4th lvl wizard and a 10th lvl cleric

Wizard part would be able to control 16HD of undead

On the cleric side you could control 40HD of undead

Cleric also has rebuke, which is 10hd of undead seperate from the other two.

You cannot control one 66HD undead, they don't stack. You could use wizard spells to animate 16 1hd skeletons, and cleric spells to control 40 1hd skeletons, then use your rebuke to control a 10hd vampire.

__________________

Some may question your right to destroy ten billion people. Those who understand realize that you have no right to let them live!